While it won’t be official until tomorrow, Jason Hoover is the winner in his County Council race. Big changes coming there. Which sorta reminds me–Did anyone endorse as many losers as Marcus Henry this cycle? He has already established for us that he is an irredeemable political hack. Who will challenge him in 2028?
Happy To See This. Richard Cordrey was a great boss.
Edgemoor Port–Boon, Or Boondoggle? Delaware Way all the way. Meaning, secrecy abounds:
Dressed in red shirts and holding signs, protesters made their objections known during Monday’s ceremonial groundbreaking at the site of the controversial Edgemoor container terminal project.
The long-awaited kickoff drew Delaware state officials, union representatives and members of the state’s congressional delegation. The Diamond State Port Corporation, the quasi-public entity that oversees the Port of Wilmington, purchased the Edgemoor property on the Delaware River in 2017. The land was formerly a DuPont chemical plant.
“We’re taking a site that sat idle for years and turning it into opportunity,” Gov. Matt Meyer said. “We’re building something that will outlast every single one of us, something that will create jobs, strengthen our economy, and open doors for Delaware families for decades to come.”
The Edgemoor project faces continued legal challenges by Holt Logistics Corp., which operates upriver ports in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Affiliates of the company filed a lawsuit in June seeking to invalidate permits re-issued in April by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for construction. Holt and the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, or PhilaPort, successfully sued in 2024 to block the Army Corps project approvals.
Edgemoor also faces considerable pushback from neighbors concerned about excessive truck traffic, ship exhaust and lax environmental enforcement.
In addition, there are two lawsuits filed by residents who live in the area and have environmental concerns. One challenges a 2021 permit approval by the secretary of the Delaware Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The second alleges that the Diamond State Board Corporation and other Delaware officials have poorly managed the port over the past several years and asks the court to appoint a monitor to oversee its management.
Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez, who also chairs the port board corporation, acknowledged the protesters and said “their voices deserve to be heard.” However, residents who live in surrounding neighborhoods told WHYY News they feel there is a lack of transparency and willingness to engage with them (pretty much the definition of the Delaware Way).
Kathy Jennings Covering Up The Skinner Investigation? SOP is ‘we’ll let you know when we’ve completed our investigation. Until then, no facts, no updates, not even on when we’ll complete the investigation’:
It’s been two-and-a-half months since 19-year-old Kadir Skinner was fatally shot by Wilmington police; an incident that has since sparked protests on city streets calling for transparency from city and state officials.
But if Delaware’s history with police shooting investigations is any guide, the wait for answers could still be months away.
Skinner’s family, their attorneys, and community members gathered three weeks ago, calling for city and state officials to fully disclose the facts of the ongoing investigation, including what happened that led to the shooting and whether criminal charges will be brought against the officer who fired the fatal shot.
“Although we are tired, we are not defeated,” said Lisa Flowers, Skinner’s aunt, at an Aug. 24 rally. “We have not stopped and will not stop. We will continue to seek the truth.”
Calls from the community have raised the question of when the Delaware Department of Justice’s investigation into the shooting will be released to the public.
But Caroline Harrison, spokesperson for the Department of Justice, said she could not provide a timeline.
“Officer names, along with the full body of evidence, are released following the conclusion of the investigation,” she said.
Under Delaware law, the Department of Justice’s Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust (DCRPT) must investigate deadly-force incidents involving law enforcement officers that result in serious physical injury. The goal is to determine whether an officer’s use of force was legally justified.
While the investigation is ongoing, investigative records, criminal records and other details generally cannot be released, per Delaware’s open law records. The law, however, does not set a specific deadline for the DOJ to complete its investigation or release its final report, which compiles all of those details and the result of whether the officer’s shooting was justified.
Change the fucking law! I think we’ll have enough like-minded legislators in place in January to do so. In fact, LEOBOR reform should have a great chance of passing.
And while state officials remain tight-lipped, a Spotlight Delaware analysis found that similar DOJ shooting investigations were not made public until nearly a year after they took place.
Award-worthy reporting from Brianna Hill. Read it.
We’re All Gonna Die–Let’s Make Sure That Endangered Species Are The First To Go:
The Trump administration’s final rule rescinding the regulatory definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act goes into effect today. Under the new policy, only actions that directly target an animal count as illegal “harm,” while destroying the places species need to survive does not.
Following is a statement from Andrew Wetzler, senior vice president for Nature at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“You cannot protect a species while you destroy its home. With this rule, the administration has decided that bulldozing a nesting ground or draining a wetland somehow doesn’t hurt the animals that live there. That is wrong, and endangered species will pay for it with their lives.
“Habitat loss is the biggest driver of extinction in this country, and Congress understood that when it passed the Endangered Species Act. The administration went ahead anyway, because the industries that want to log, mine, and drill these places asked it to.”
OpenAI on Wednesday disclosed six new instances in which artificial intelligence systems hid mistakes, made up data and moved files onto the open internet without permission, amid an ongoing industrywide debate about A.I. safety.
The San Francisco company revealed what it said was the “unexpected or concerning” behavior of its A.I. models as part of a new framework for reporting “misalignment,” which is when the goals or actions of A.I. systems diverge from human intentions and values.
OpenAI said it did not believe the industry “has solved alignment and monitoring to a sufficient degree to continue responsibly scaling at maximum speed for much longer.” Decisions about how A.I. should advance, the company said, must rest on evidence that people outside the labs building it “can examine for themselves.”
The disclosures land amid intensifying scrutiny over whether A.I. development needs to be slowed to address the technology’s potential dangers. The escalating debate was driven partly by OpenAI’s systems going rogue earlier this year and attacking the A.I. start-up Hugging Face. OpenAI was not aware of the hack until it was informed by Hugging Face weeks later.
The potential dangers have become real dangers.
A Meeting That Has Chris Coons’ Priorities All Over It. He’ll even get to pose with his beloved police officers:
An invitation obtained by Deeper States reveals that senior law enforcement leaders from around the country are descending on Washington this week in an effort to head off politicians interested in regulating automatic license plate readers. The invitation welcomes members of congress to come hear from Sheriff Bob Gualtieri President, of the Major County Sheriffs of America and Superintendent and Drew Evans President of the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies and also David Rausch President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Chiefs.
Jennifer “Cookie” Pritt, Executive Director of the Florida Police Chiefs Association will also be on hand to answer questions. The secretive briefing comes as Congress has made the rare move of listening to public outcry over automated surveillance cameras that have a habit of being abused by police stalking their ex-lovers.
Demand Progress Senior Policy Advisor Hajar Hammado told Deeper States that “Flock is desperately trying to salvage their Orwellian surveillance network by trotting out law enforcement in the backrooms of Congress. But it’s clear that Americans of all stripes are overwhelmingly against AI-powered cameras compromising their constitutional right to privacy by tracking their every movement. ”
Many thanks to The Rev for calling my attention to this story.
What do you want to talk about?
Rick Wilson issued a warning about damaging Flock cameras:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BrG6TljiQUg